


Looking For Rudolph In All The Wrong Places

by creatureofhobbit



Category: American Horror Story: Hotel
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 12:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8249624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: She could do nothing about Rudolph and Natacha, yet she could about Tristan and Liz.





	

There had only ever been one lover for her, one who held any place in her heart, much as she had engaged in the act with many people; James March, Ramona Royale, Donovan. But none would ever compare to Rudolph Valentino, none could ever take his place. March had been all about financial security; and she had thought at one point that Ramona may be the person who could make her forget about Rudolph, could make her happy again. But Elizabeth always knew deep down that no one else would ever come close. She’d gone through the motions, saying all the right things, imagining every time that it was Rudolph she was saying them to, all the while keeping her mind on the prize, the money that would be hers at the end of everything. Then every night when she was alone once more, she would think back to those days in 1925 when she still had hope, when she still believed that she and Rudolph could have a future.

Elizabeth had tried to hate him. From the moment he had first disappeared on her, having first infected her and then condemned her to an immortal life without him, she had determined to spend no more time loving him. Yet not knowing for sure where he was now, a part of Elizabeth had held on to hope that one day he would walk back in with some explanation, something that she could understand and forgive, anything that would mean there was a chance for them.

She thought she’d finally managed to close the door on Rudolph, until the day Tristan Duffy walked in to the Hotel Cortez. For that moment as she first laid eyes on him, Elizabeth felt as though she was back in 1925 again, and Rudolph Valentino was standing before her again. Any moment she expected Natacha to walk in and call her “little mouse” once more. Could this be him, having created a new identity for himself and come back for her? As soon as he opened his mouth, of course, the spell was broken – one word in that American accent of his, rather than the Italian accent used by Rudolph, and Elizabeth knew it wasn’t him, could never be him again. Yet Tristan was the closest she was ever going to come to having him back, and Elizabeth did her best to bury the little voice that was always reminding her that he was someone else altogether.

The day that Tristan broke it to her that he had fallen in love with Liz, Elizabeth was reminded all over again of how Rudolph had disappeared with Natacha, and how she could only assume that they had decided to run away together, leaving her behind, as Tristan and Liz were intending to do now. Liz was her creation, the one SHE had plucked from the obscurity the dull Nick Pryor had sunk into and allowed her to live her life as the person she had always dreamed of being, and this was how Liz chose to repay her?

There had been nothing Elizabeth could do about Rudolph and Natacha at the time, but there was something she could do about Tristan and Liz. Liz would know how it felt to live the rest of her days without her love, just as Natacha had done to Elizabeth. Meanwhile, it was time for Elizabeth to stop looking for Rudolph in all the wrong places. It was time for her to move on, to look to securing her future, and Will Drake was just the man to help her do that.


End file.
